An Errand in Alexandria
by Radioactive Nerd
Summary: Season 4 episode 7. Going to the library is more exciting than you think.


**Author's Note: If I ever got the chance to time travel, I would definitely pay a visit to the Alexandria Library. It's just something that would be on my time travel list. Read and review! Oh, and I kind of stole a line from _The Goonies_ in this. If you are a fan of that movie then you'll know it when you come to it.**

**Disclaimer: Radioactive Nerd was not alive during the filming and release of all three films so therefore has no rights to them.**

Hill Valley, California

February 5, 2033

12:00 PM

The robots were gaining in their pursuit of the time travelers. Doc, Marty, Jules, and Verne were running as fast as they could away from the ticked-off machines and to the time train. Who knew robots of the twenty-first century would have such tempers!

"You just had to examine them didn't you brainiac?" Verne shouted as he dodged an extended metal claw grabbing for him. Jules shot him an annoyed look as he ran along, still holding his Swiss army knife. Indeed, he had tried to see the internal functions of the future machines.

"Boys now's not the time nor location to bicker!" Doc shouted as they all hopped aboard the time train. The robots outstretched their arms but missed just by inches. Doc started up the controls and the train began to rise above the ground.

"That was close," Marty began as he began pulling up the stairs. "I thought for sure they would of-"

Before Marty could finish talking a robot jumped into the entryway and grabbed Marty around the neck. The machine started to pull the musician out of the train and Marty started yelling for help. Jules and Verne rushed over to Marty and grabbed him tightly. The robot and the Brown boys had a little tug of war before the machine's arm came loose and the robot fell out the door.

Marty and the boys fell into a heap on the floor of the time train. The robots arm squirmed around a little but then layed still.

"Correction," Marty said and pulled himself out of the heap. "_That _was close. Did you get the tools and micro chip things Doc?"

"Affirmative," Doc said as they soared through the sky. Luckily, they were far away from any sky ways. "Verney would you be so kind as to check that off my list?"

Verne grabbed the sharpie marker and picked up the list of Time Travel Errands. He crossed off the line that said: 2033: PICK UP TOOLS AND MICRO CHIPS.

Doc had made a list because they were doing errands. Well, they were doing errands in _time_. The scientist had always had to run errands through the time stream and Jules and Verne would often accompany him. It was never boring for them. Marty had come along too this time, figuring Doc could use the help.

"Where we heading next pop?" Verne asked when he looked up from the list. His father was at the control punching in the next date in the time circuits.

"To 236 B.C.," Doc said and speeded up the time train. "I need to borrow some scientific bibliographies from the great Alexandria Library."

The time train got to 88 and disappeared from the future and into the ancient past.

Alexandria, Egypt

June 30, 236 B.C.

12:02 PM

The time train appeared in the city of Alexandria with a flash of light. The city from above was a masterpiece of brilliant architecture that was covering the great land. Doc steered it toward the ground and they came to a stop next to one of the buildings.

"Hey Doc won't people here be suspicious that an Old West train parked here?" Marty said as they all got out.

"Not to worry Marty," Doc said and brought out a remote from his pocket. He pressed the big red button on it and the time train vanished from sight. It was a similar feature that he had put in the DeLorean last month.

Doc led the way through the city and the crowds of ancient people. There were many of them, all going about their own businesses. However, a few of them paused to look at the time travelers.

The scientist picked up the pace and held Jules and Verne's hands so they wouldn't get separated. They were heading towards a large extravagant building. Everyone stopped in front of it to gaze in wonder at it. It was the most impressive structure the boys and even Marty had ever seen. It was also quite intimidating with its largeness and the boys were a little nervous about traveling inside.

"WOW this makes the University's library look like a shack!" Marty exclaimed.

They started walking up to the entrance of the Alexandria Library, where a few scholars were either entering or exiting. When they came to the opening, both Jules and Verne immediately stopped walking. Doc looked at them, perplexed.

"Boys is something wrong?" the scientist asked. Jules shuffled his feet awkwardly and Verne bit his lip. They both looked frightened.

"It's just..." Verne began. "It's kind of dark in there... and spooky."

"Wait a sec'," Marty suddenly said. "You guys watched 'Revenge of the Cursed Mummy' last night didn't you?"

Jules and Verne didn't reply and just looked at the ground. Their father came over to them and put a comforting hand on each of their shoulders.

"Now boys there are no mummified bodies in the Alexandria Library," Doc said as he guided his sons into the entrance. "Besides, it is against the laws of physics for a dead organism to regain life."

Inside, the library was quite dark and the time travelers could barely see their own feet. Some torches placed rather far apart from each other dimly lite the corridor. Doc removed one of the wall and decided to use it as a makeshift flashlight. Marty grabbed one also.

Jules and Verne looked around and could see that they were in a massive hallway. It was longer and higher than any hallway they had ever been in. It was also weirder than any hallway they had ever been in.

The whole place was made out of the smoothest stone with inscriptions on the walls. Jules tried to read some symbols but it was too hard without his book of hieroglyphics. Verne noticed that the place had alot of entryways to other rooms (small and big). The first room they came to was full of white robes and white tunics.

Perfect for disguising themselves.

Now donning their tunics, the time travelers moved along the large corridor. There were many twist and turns to it, as if they were in some kind of maze instead of a library. Verne was looking all around and taking it all in.

"This place sure is weird," Verne commented when he noticed certain Egyptian inscriptions on the wall.

"Ah, Verny this Library is one of the greatest in history," Doc began as they walked further into the library. He and Jules were going at a quick pace and Marty and Verne were kind of slugging behind. "In fact, it is not a library it is an institution. Scholars would study here and use the collected knowledge to learn more about..."

As his father went on and on, Verne turned his attention towards the wall beside him. There was this _huge _creepy bug crawling on it, inches from Verne's face and he recoiled in horror. The ten-year-old backed away and crashed into Marty. They fell to the floor together and got the wind knocked out of each other.

"Jeez Verne you gotta watch where you're going," Marty said, sounding a little annoyed. He got up and helped the boy to his feet. "Come on, we need to catch up with your dad before-"

Marty and Verne turned around and saw that Doc and Jules were gone. The young man and ten-year-old were completely alone in the corridor.

"Before we get left behind," Marty finished.

0 0 0

Doc was talking about the Alexandria Library even when he heard something fall from behind him. His oldest son Jules was still trudging along beside him listening intently to his father's mini dissertation on their current location. When they reached the end of the long twisty corridor, it was brought to the scientist's attention that two people were missing.

"Father Martin and Verne are not in physical sight anymore!" Jules gasped. They both looked around and saw that indeed Marty and Verne weren't with them.

"Drat!" Doc said. "We'll have to meet up with them later. I really need to get those scrolls."

Doc and Jules turned their attention to the door right in front of them. It was very wide and was made out of polished wood. He turned the latch and opened the door so they could enter. When they got inside, Jules nearly fainted.

The room they had come into was absolutely stuffed with documented knowledge. Shelves and shelves stocked with scrolls and papers lined the walls and hand-crafted ladders and tables were occupying space. This room was particularly dedicated to scrolls on astronomy, physics, and other sciences. To science geeks like Doc and Jules, it was heaven.

"Great Scott!" Doc and Jules said together.

0 0 0

"Doc!" Marty called. "Doc!"

"Dad!" Verne yelled. "Pop!"

The two were trying to catch up with Doc and Jules but had no idea where they were. Marty and Verne tried going forward and following the footprints on the floor. Those prints led them farther down the corridor but they started to fade. By the time they reached a forked hallway, the footprints were totally gone.

"So which way now?" Verne asked.

"I don't know," Marty said and scratched his head. "Maybe we should just go back to the time train."

Suddenly, the two heard someone yell from behind them. They turned around and expected to see Doc and Jules standing there. Instead, two Egyptian scholars were pointing at them and looking really angry. Marty and Verne looked at each other and bolted down the hallway with the scholars chasing close behind.

0 0 0

Meanwhile, Doc and Jules were examining the Science Scroll Room. Jules was up on one of the ladders so he could reach the scrolls on astronomy. He wanted to see how these ancient people depicted the night sky. Doc was at a table with a pile of scrolls, examining one of them with a magnifying glass.

"Hmm facsinating," Doc muttered and rolled the scroll back up.

"Jules what have you found?" Doc asked. His son didn't answer him and Doc looked up from his studies. "Jules?"

Jules was sitting on the floor by the ladder and was totally engrossed with a large scroll. It was not really a document but a hand-made map of the starry sky. It was brilliantly designed and skillfully sketched. The stars were in the right places and an Egyptian god was included among the heavens. It was a wonderment to the eleven-year-old.

"Yes father?" Jules asked when he broke out of his trance.

"I think I've got what I need," Doc said and gathered the three scrolls he had chosen. He would travel back and return them when he was done with them.

"All right, father I have a question," Jules said as they headed out the door. Doc looked at his son curiously.

"Why did we travel back in time to Alexandria rather than just going there in the present?" Jules asked.

"Unfortunately son this grand library will be burned to the ground," Doc said. "Most of the collected knowledge was reduced to ash. It is actually quite a history mystery. Some researchers believe that Julius Ceaser caused the destruction but they don't have any serious evidence."

Jules looked at the architecture surrounding him, feeling sad that it would one day be charred rubble.

Doc tried to turn the latch on the door but it wouldn't budge. He twisted it harder and even yanked on it. Jules looked over his father's shoulder to see what the problem was. Doc was getting annoyed now and started tugging hard on the door. The scientist tugged so hard that the latch broke off the door and right in his hand.

Doc and Jules looked at each other, knowing that they were trapped.

0 0 0

Marty and Verne were running at full speed down corridors with their footsteps echoing through the corridors. The scholars were shouting at them in an unfamiliar language and gaining in the pursuit. The time travelers rounded a sharp corner and heard one of the scholars shout and a hard thud. They stopped and looked behind them.

The two scholars had tripped over themselves when they came to the corner and were now lying in a heap. They were struggling to get up and Marty and Jules took the opportunity to get away.

Through the corridor they ran until they came among many doors.

"Which one?" Marty asked. They could hear the two scholars coming after them.

"Uh here!" Verne said and yanked open a door. They both hurried into the room and shut the door behind them. They pressed their ears against the door and heard the scholars run right past the door. Breathing a heavy sigh, Marty turned around.

"Hey Verne we're in some sort of plant room," Marty said and they both looked around.

Actually the room they were hiding in was a garden. Many flowers and other plants covered the room from ceiling to floor. The place strongly reminded Verne of a jungle.

"I repeat: this place sure is weird," Verne said and stroked a plant's rather large leaf. He spotted a small little desk that had a scroll rolled out on it along with some tools for studying.

"Hey look someone was in the middle of their homework."

"Verny let's go these plants are starting to give me the creeps," Marty said and batted a vine away from his face. They opened a door a creak, just to see if anybody was in the corridor.

Coast was clear.

Marty led the way back towards where they had come from. He and Verne wanted to just get back to Doc and Jules and jet back to the future. The only thing was Marty was leading them deeper into the Library's dark and deserted corridors and farther away from the other time travelers.

0 0 0

Meanwhile Doc and Jules were having their own troubles.

They had been trying to somehow get the door open but they weren't having much luck. There wasn't even a window that they could squeeze through! Doc and Jules had paused to think of a rational way they could escape the room. Suddenly, Jules stood up and started searching the room for something.

"Jules what in the name of Thomas Alva Edison are you doing?" Doc questioned as he watched his son crawl on the floor like he had lost a contact.

"Perhaps there is some sort of secret passageway," Jules said. He moved under the table and started feeling along the wall. "Or some small door for slaves to come through."

Doc joined his son in the search but they looked and looked and found nothing. Both sat on the floor of the Science Scroll Room disappointed.

"Wait!" Jules cried and snapped his fingers. He went over to a small hand-crafted bookshelf and pulled it away from the wall. However his strength was not the good. "Father help!"

Doc started pulling the heavy wooden bookshelf from its position. They both looked at the wall and saw a small sized entrance to a a tunnel right where the bookshelf had been. Jules easily climbed into it and began crawling "army style" along the little passageway.

"Father are you sure you can fit?" Jules asked when he looked back and noticed that his father was having trouble entering the passageway.

"It will be a tight squeeze but yes," Doc said as he finally got in. They began crawling along together through the passageway.

They kept going for what seemed like _hours _and seeing nothing but darkness. Doc's limbs were beginning to grow sore and Jules was sweating up a storm from the stuffiness of the passageway. They kept going and going until Jules spotted a figment of light way in front of them.

"I see something!" Jules called back to his father. Doc crawled up right next to Jules and stared at the light too. He estimated that it was some yards away from their standpoint. The father moved in front of Jules just in case something bad was there and led the way.

The end of the passageway was where the light was and the two time travelers were happy to get out of the passage way. Unfortunately when they reached it they saw it was covered with mesh wire. Doc took out the confiscated Swiss army knife and began cutting away at the mesh wire.

When he got all of it off, Doc squeezed himself out of the passageway and pulled his son out. Jules scrapped his arm slightly on the wire but otherwise he came out fine. They dusted themselves off as best they could since they were covered in cobwebs and dust.

"Well that was quite a crawl," Doc commented. They looked around and saw that they were in a small closet-like room. The scientist tried the door and, thank goodness, it was unlocked. He turned the knob and opened it a creak. Jules watched his father peer out the crack and suddenly jump back from the door, his eyes wide and his hand over his mouth.

"Father what is it?" Jules asked, perplexed at his father's strange behavior. Doc just was breathing heavy and still was covering his mouth.

"Eratosthenes of Cyrene," Doc said after his star-struck moment. Jules went closer to the door and peeped out.

The twelve-year-old saw a man working at a desk in the next room. He had a beard and looked quite important as he documented unknown things down on scrolls. The man picked up another scroll and skimmed it with his eyes. Jules looked at an inscription carved into the desk and tried to read it. His skills at deciphering hieroglyphics weren't that good but he could make out: MASTER and LIBRARIAN.

Doc moved back to the door to look at Eratosthenes again. He had been quite shocked that they he had actually seen this man. It was normal for him though, since Doc had nearly fainted the time he met Thomas Edison.

"That's Eratosthenes of Cyrene?" Jules said, he had always been curious about the ancient man he was partially named after.

"Yes that is him," Doc whispered. "In this year he was appointed the Librarian of the Alexandria Library. Son he was, uh is, a great man. A poet, mathematician, athlete, geographer, and astronomer all in one. I named you partially after him because he was the founder of scientific chronology and the first Greek to calculate the circumference of Earth."

"Holy bovine," Jules whispered. Eratosthenes was skimming more scrolls and copying down some calculations. Doc and Jules watched the man, like two groupees watching Elvis.

Eratosthenes got up from his desk and left the room for a moment. Doc and Jules used this opportunity to get out of the closet. They left the office of Eratosthenes and went out into the corridor.

"Now we just need to find your brother and Marty," Doc said. "Let's hope they aren't in any danger."

0 0 0

Marty and Verne were traveling down a dark and dirty cavern of the Library that was probably abandoned. Marty was leading the way with the torch grasped tightly in his hand and Verne was following tentatively.

"Shouldn't we be careful?" Verne asked as they walked. "What if there are booty traps."

"You mean 'booby traps'," Marty corrected as he avoided stepping on a strange bug.

"That's what I said, booty traps!" Verne exclaimed. He was walking weird, trying to not step on any button that would lead them to their doom. The torch finally went out with a _poof!_

"Verne come on," Marty said exasperated as he felt his way along the wall. "A library doesn't have booby tra-"

Before the musician could finish his sentence his hand pressed hard on a secret spot on the wall and there was a terrible rumbling sound. Verne whipped around and saw the ceiling coming down on them in sections. It was happening fast and they could hardly believe it.

"RUN!" Verne screamed and they both headed down the corridor at full speed. The ceiling was coming down faster and faster. The boys kept running and screaming until Verne tripped and fell to the ground. He saw a section coming down behind him and covered his eyes when the other one began to drop. Marty stopped and pulled the ten-year-old up from the ground (saving his life) and piggybacked him out of there.

"There has to be an exit somewhere!" Marty shouted over the noise. He rounded a corner but the crashing of the ceiling kept coming. Verne looked up from hiding his face in Marty's shoulder and saw an opening up ahead.

"Marty straight ahead!" Verne yelled and pointed at the exit. It was their only hope for survival.

"Got it!" Marty yelled and picked up the pace. He ran faster and faster and right when the the final section fell down, Marty and Verne jumped out the exit.

They fell on the ground of the outside of the Alexandria Library. They were breathing heavy and their hearts were beating a mile a minute. After all, they just escaped a killer booby trap.

"Oh there you two are," a voice said from above them. Marty and Verne looked up to see Doc and Jules staring at them. Jules helped his brother up and Doc helped Marty up.

"I got the scrolls I needed we can go now," Doc said and held up the borrowed bibliographies.

They all started walking back towards the invisible time train. As they walked, Verne told his father and brother about the chase, garden room, and booby traps. Jules told his brother about being locked in the room and having to crawl through a secret passageway and seeing Eratosthenes.

"Jumpin' jigawatts," Doc said as they hopped aboard the time train. "Who knew visiting a library could lead to such an adventure!"

The time train rose into the sky and soared off into the sky. With the signature flash of bright light, it returned to 1992.

END


End file.
